Independent Banker - September 2022 - 49

National Community Bank Service Awards
Honorable Mention:
Emerging Community
Bank Service Award
SPONSORED BY
Ulster Savings Bank
employees drop off
donated pet supplies
to the local Ulster
County ASPCA.
[total]. We waived all our ATM fees
for almost fi ve months, knowing
that many people might not be
able to get to their own banks. We
also waived our overdraft and NFS
charges for about six months. When
PPP [Paycheck Protection Program]
came around ... 58% of all the PPP
loans that we did were $30,000 or
less, 90% were $50,000 or less, so
we were helping small businesses,
and we could open up [PPP loans]
to customers and noncustomers
to help in a way national banks
couldn't. We knew that we could be
one of the pillars of strength in the
community, and we tried to project a
calming eff ect.
Planning makes perfect
hroughout its 170-year history,
Ulster Savings Bank has
successfully managed diffi cult and
unexpected fi nancial situations by
prioritizing the needs of community
members. Bill Calderara, president,
tells us how-and why they put
this experience to work during
the pandemic.
G
Q: How did Ulster Savings Bank's
history of navigating depressions
and recessions prepare it to
navigate the pandemic?
A: We triggered our pandemic plan
very early in January 2020. We pulled
it out hoping, at that point, that we
were just going through an exercise
and we wouldn't need it. But we
pulled out the plan and made sure it
was updated, ordered PPE, cleaning
supplies and laptops ... having had
some history of going through this in
the past. That way, when things really
started to heat up [in March] and the
governor [of New York] started to
close a lot of operations, we were able
to operate without missing a beat.
Q: What were some of the ways
you engaged with your community
during this time?
A: We started delivering fi nances to
local food pantries because we knew
that the demand would be greater.
There wasn't government lending
coming in immediately. We already
give a lot to the community, but we
upped it tremendously in 2020. We
did the more proactive thing, walking
out with a check and handing them
to organizations that needed them
or might not survive. We also started
to buy meals for the local hospital
workers and have them delivered,
because we knew they were on the
front lines. It also helped a lot of our
local restaurants.
Q: How did you help your
customers during this time?
A: We immediately put an
announcement on our website
that our customers could request
loan deferment if they needed it.
We granted more than 2,500 loan
deferments, about $278 million
Q: How did the community
respond to your eff orts?
A: The growth that we went through
during that period was phenomenal,
because we ended up opening more
accounts for people. So, they not
only appreciated our eff orts, but they
also came through as new customers
because of what we'd done for them
and the community. We had business
customers who to this day tell us we
were the reason that they're able to
stay in business. We had personal
customers and people on our
residential side with the closings we
were able to do when they couldn't
get them done anywhere else. They
knew we were swamped, but they kept
saying how friendly we were ... people
[didn't feel] like we were too busy
for them. To this day, we've gotten
thousands and thousands of letters,
notes and emails from customers. One
of my favorites was a tweet from one
of our customers: " [I] love it when a
bank goes all George Bailey in a time
of crisis. " -Sofi a Haan 
Ulster Savings Bank
Assets: $1.3 billion
Location: Kingston, N.Y.
ulstersavings.com
independentbanker.org Q 49
http://www.ulstersavings.com http://www.independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - September 2022

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